ALBANY, N.Y. — State Republicans held a press conference to address the high cost of homeownership in New York. They laid out several proposals aimed at making housing more affordable.
“New York State is one of the least affordable states in the entire nation. We have some of the highest property taxes in all of America and we have some of the lowest homeownership rates in our nation,” officials said.
The proposals include a property tax credit for first-time homebuyers, a tax incentive for manufactured housing developers building in rural areas, streamlining the permitting process for construction projects, and repealing the all-electric mandate for new buildings.
These measures are part of an effort to tackle the housing affordability issue in the state.
Democrats’ variation of the housing bill
Meanwhile, Assembly Majority Leader Crystal Peoples-Stokes, a Democrat, is proposing her own housing bill. According to the Buffalo News, her bill would provide tax breaks to property owners who convert vacant office space into housing. Property owners would need to convert at least 50 percent of the vacant space into residential units to qualify for a tax credit equal to 10 percent of their qualified rehab costs.
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